Back in the 90s, a console war was raging between SEGA and Nintendo, much like the ongoing PlayStation and Xbox console battle today, as most gamers could only choose one. The Super Nintendo had classic titles such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, while the SEGA Genesis had a unique line up with Sonic the Hedgehog and Shining Force. The SEGA Genesis console grew to have an impressive, unique library. At the time, it was considered a strong competitor against Nintendo. When Nintendo released a new title, such as Chrono Trigger, SEGA fought back with Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium. Both the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo consoles raged on♓ until t🎃he new console generation brought on the release of the Sony PlayStation.

While Nintendo fought a strong battle with the Nintendo 64, SEGA started to falter soon after. Though they made an attempt with the SEGA Saturn and ♔SEGA Dreamcast, the brand began to fall, as bad decisions hurt the business internally. Gamers felt a disconnect with the company and SEGA made no attempt to patch up the relationship. The mistakes that SEGA continued to make only stacked on top of each other and SEGA consoles and handhelds soon became old relics in basements and cabinets worldwide.

Once a household name along with Nintendo, SEGA has stepped back from console development to focus on game publishing. SEGA has attempted to make a comeback, but has almost completely lost the loyalty of game📖rs and the trust of retailers. This li🐓st covers many the SEGA empire fell.

15 Failing To Add A DVD Player To The Drea﷽mcast

The SEGA Dreamcast launched in September of 1999 and it was praised for being developer friendly. SEGA also learned from its previous mistakes with the Sega Genesis and welcom🐻ed more casual gamers. Tadashi Takezaki, who worked in SEGA's PR and marketing dep𝓀artments, stated the desire to bring the Dreamcast to a broader audience.

Sony soon released the PlayStation 2 the following year. The difference is that Sony was able to add DVD technology into their console. A DVD console built into the console made it a valuable multi-tasking and space saving item. SEGA did not have the money or the resources to add a DVD player into the Dreamcast. Unlike Sony, who was able to develop the DVD reading technology in-house, SEGA's hardware w🍰as outsourced from different companies. Expensive hardware made the Dreamcast development costs more expensive than its competitor. The Dreamcast was a powerful machine, but the lack of a DVD player limited their audience.

14 Al💧ienating Gamers Wi🐷th Poor Marketing

In the last century, arcades were much more popular than they are today. Local arcades were social spaces for gamers and their friends. With an arcade not far from home, some didn't feel the need to own a console at home. SEGA wanted to change that. They tried to make indecisive gamers believe that they could bring arcade experiences to their homes. "Genesis does what Nintendon't" was SEGA's taunt to its competitors. Instead of family-friendly games, the Genesis had popular arcade ports, such as Altered Beast and Super Monaco GP.

Talking badly about the competition wasn't above SEGA or Nintendo back then. SEGA took it a step furthꦜer and started insulting gamers as well. SEGA wanted gamers to believe that those who chose Nintendo were casual gamers and not "real" ones. The SEGA Genesis was for serious players, while the Nintendo was for kids. SEGA alienated gamers who just played for fun.

13 Lac♎king Third Party✨ Developer Support

SEGA released the SEGA Saturn console in 1994,  around the same time as the Sony PlayStation. Sony was new to the video game market, but was quickly gaining popularity🥂. ♏Though the SEGA Saturn attempted to rival the Sony PlayStation, its graphics hardware trailed behind.

The early release of the SEGA Saturn made third-party developers believe SEGA only wanted to focus on their most popular properties first, as the SEGA Saturn was more difficult to develop games on. The 𓄧Saturn had more complex hardware than the PlayStation, which decreased interest in developing for the console. The poor support made third party developers even more uninterested.

Not only did Sony impress gamers with its graphics, but the PlayStation was a more straightforward console to develop games on. They released development tools to aid third party develo🍌pers. Sony also had a much stronger support system. During this time, SEGA was releasing new add-ons and consoles too quickly and ending support just as fast. The Sony PlayStation had a much broader range of games while SEGA trailed behind.

12 ꦦ SEGA/Sammy Merger Came At The Cost Of Gamers' Trust

After multiple console failures, SEGA was quickly losing money and looking for a way to turn a profit. To save the company, they decided to merge with Sammy, the leading manufacturer of pachinko machines. By merging, they hoped to make more s♏oftware for pachinko machine🌞s and expand their market. SEGA took over Sammy's much smaller division of video games, while Sammy concentrated on business management and their pachinko machine line.

Though the merger helped SEGA financially, the decision to merge and abandon their past consoles hurt their business reputation. They stopped focusing on providing support on the Saturn and Dreamcast consoles. Gamers were angry that after shortly releasing a new console, SEGA 🥂stopped developing games for it. Though 🐎the merger helped save them financially, SEGA had to completely revamp their company to regain gamers' trust and make a profit.

11 ꦏ ജ Internal Strife Between The American And Japanese Branches

SEGA was split into two branches: Japan and America. Both released the SEGA Master System and Genesis within their countries, while the Japanese branch was surprised at how well the consoles sold on the North American market. They were not thrilled about the situation, which led to internal issues between the Japanese and American branches. Japan also made poor decisions for the American market by packaging the SEGA Genesis with Altered Beast instead of the more popular Sonic the Hedgehog game. Yuji Naka, the leader of the Sonic Team, grew tired of the internal issues and he moved to the US to finish development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Though🐭 SEGA of Japan did not value their American counterparts, SEGA of America's former President Bernie Stolar also caused strife. He didn't believe that Japanese games on the Sega Saturn would sell in North American markets, so the number of games on the Sega Saturn dwindled compared to Japanese-exclu🃏sives. SEGA was well on its way to failure with the amount of the internal strife between both branches.

10 SEGA-CD Expectat🌄ions Exceeded Reality

In the 1980s, SEGA and Pioneer teamed up to create a revolutionary new addition to the SEGA Genesis. Projec🌜t Earth would add a laser disc addition to the system. Unfortunately, this project failed due to costs. SEGA decided to evolve this add-on from laser disc to CD-ROM. Project Earth turned into the SEGA-CD, which would double the power of the Genesis.

The SEGA-CD was the first of many expensive add-ons for the Genesis. The game library had several gems, including Sonic CD and the Lunar RPG series, but game releases slowly stalled. The SEGA-CD was powerful for its time. Game developers started focusing too much attenౠtion making unpopular full-motion video games. In a drastic attempt to boost sales, SEGA released the Mega Drive II and the Multi-Mega. This confused gamers because they didn't know what to purchase. Sales eventually decreased, and SEGA moved on, eventually withdrawing their support from t🤡he add-on.

9 Abandoning The SEGA Channel 🎶

In the 1990s, if gamers wanted to try out a game, they would have to rent it from a local Blockbuster store or borrow it from a friend. The SEGA Channel was an innovative new ser♚vice that worked with cable television providers. In mid-1994, SEGA ꦅlaunched the SEGA Channel in a few test markets in the US. To access the service, gamers had to use a special cartridge for the SEGA Genesis console and pay a monthly fee. This cartridge was similar to a modem.

SEGA Channel gave gamers access to upcoming SEGA news and over 50 games. After picking out your game and waiting a few minutes to download, it would play as if it was a cartridge inserted into your SEGA Genesis. Unfortunately, SEGA discontinued the service in the late 1990s, a🍌s SEGA was unable to compete with the popularity of the game line up on the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

8 Ending Co𒊎nsole Devel🗹opment For Digital Gaming

SEGA and Nintendo fought a hard battle in the 1990s. However, in the 2000s, SEGA encountered several setbacks, as the failure of the SEGA Dre🌠amcast cost them millions and they were unable to compete with Nintendo and Sony. They eventually made the decision to stop developing consoles and focus on digital𒈔 and mobile gaming.

SEGA enjoyed some success with the first-ever console MMORPG Phantasy Star Online, as it was successful in Japan and North America. In an attempt to profit from online play, SEGA decided🐓 to make a bold change. SEGA moved their efforts to mobile and o🐬nline PC games. Employees were let go from the company in an attempt to downsize.

SE🍒GA started branching out to make a profit instead of losing money with consoles. They began working 🎉with once-rival company, Sony, to develop games for the PlayStation 2. Instead of trying to create a better console, SEGA abandoned their work for digital game development.

7 🍰 Losing Focus W𝄹ith Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog was SEGA's gaming icoꦉn, just like Mario was for Nintendo. When developing the Sonic character, SEGA wanted to create a new type of hero. Sonic was meant to be faster, more dangerous, and cooler than Nintendo's plumber. Sonic was used to promote SEGA products and soon became a well-known character.

The Sonic the Hedgehog series of games started off strong, but then started to falter. The level designs started going downhill, so SEGA decided to remedy this by introducing several new characters, such as Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose. Unfortunately, at that point, the Sonic the Hedgehog series was focusing too much on his friends.

With a focus on adding more to the games, SEGA was losing focus on core gameplay elements. Sonic the Hedgehog was no longer just about going fast. Countless glitches, 𒀰difficult level layouts, and being forced to play as different characters still frustrates game꧃rs today.

6 Introducing A 3-Button And 6-Button Controller Optio🐻⭕n

The original SEGA Genesis console came with a three-button controller. The controller was large and bu🌱lky, but early games utilized this b🌄utton configuration.

With the evolution of more complex games, SEGA later made the d🎀ecision to release a six-button controller. Not only did th🅰e newer controller have more buttons, but the controller size itself was smaller. The amount of buttons on the controller made the layout seem cramped. There was an advantage to the six-button controllers, which was that many of them had a longer cord than the three-button model.

Howev🦋er, older games were not made with a six-button controller scheme in mind. Holding down the Mode button would set the controller to a three-button configuration. Unfortunately, this wasn't always guaranteed to work. A six-button controller scheme was helpful in some games, namely fighters, since a six button layout could mimic an arcade machine. However, this caused some backward compatibility issues that SEGA never fully resolved.